Himalayas sounding alarm of climate change: Bhupendra Yadav

Time of India

16-05-2025

Dehradun: Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav flagged the growing ecological vulnerability of the
Himalayas
, which is marked by accelerated glacier melt, while addressing '
Sagarmatha Sambaad
' -- a global dialogue on climate change and its impact on mountainous regions -- in Kathmandu on Friday.
"The science is clear. The Himalayas are sounding the
alarm
," Yadav said, warning that climate change is hastening glacier retreat and endangering water security for downstream populations. He added that Himalayan communities are under threat despite contributing little to the climate crisis, and called for regional cooperation to share scientific knowledge and protect these fragile ecosystems.
The Union minister's call for action comes on the heels of a study published in 'Journal of Glaciology' by Cambridge University Press which revealed a troubling trend at Himachal Pradesh's Gepang Gath glacier: rapid glacial retreat coupled with the dramatic expansion of its proglacial lake -- a water body that forms at the front or side of a glacier and is typically dammed by moraine, glacial ice, or debris.
Over the past six decades, this lake has grown nearly sixfold, from 0.2 km² in 1962 to 1.2 km² in 2023.
Led by scientists from the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research under the ministry of earth sciences, the study links this expansion directly to the glacier's retreat, further accelerated by calving (the breaking off of ice chunks from the glacier's terminus).
Between 2014 and 2023, Gepang Gath retreated 480m, resulting in substantial surface area loss and volume loss (21.7 million cubic metres of ice).
The glacier's mass balance—a critical measure of its health, reflecting the net gain or loss of ice—has shown a consistently negative trend, indicating it is losing more mass than it gains.
The study highlights a dangerous feedback loop: as the lake grows, its relatively warmer water accelerates melting at the glacier's edge, triggering further calving. This retreat creates more room for the lake to expand, reinforcing the cycle and turning a once-stable glacier into a rapidly vanishing ice mass.
The consequences extend well beyond Gepang Gath. Chandra River, fed by meltwater from this glacier and over 210 others in the basin, supports agriculture and hydropower downstream. Continued ice loss could strain water availability, while the expanding proglacial lake raises the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs)—sudden, destructive floods caused by the abrupt release of water from glacier-fed lakes.
GLOFs was, again, something Yadv spoke about at length in Kathmandu.
To prevent such disasters, the study calls for urgent measures, including the establishment of early warning systems for the proglacial lake and enhanced monitoring of glacier-lake dynamics.
These recommendations align with Yadav's five-point global action plan to tackle shared ecological challenges in mountainous regions. One key measure he outlined was building climate resilience through investments in adaptation strategies, early warning systems for hazards like GLOFs, and the development of climate-resilient infrastructure in high-altitude areas.
Gepang Gath is not an isolated case. Across the Himalayas, many lake-terminating glaciers are undergoing similar transformations. The study warns that unchecked glacier retreat and expanding proglacial lakes could severely impact water security in South Asia, where millions rely on glacier-fed rivers for drinking water, agriculture, and energy.
(With agency inputs)
Dehradun: Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav flagged the growing ecological vulnerability of the Himalayas, which is marked by accelerated glacier melt, while addressing 'Sagarmatha Sambaad' -- a global dialogue on climate change and its impact on mountainous regions -- in Kathmandu on Friday.
"The science is clear. The Himalayas are sounding the alarm," Yadav said, warning that climate change is hastening glacier retreat and endangering water security for downstream populations. He added that Himalayan communities are under threat despite contributing little to the climate crisis, and called for regional cooperation to share scientific knowledge and protect these fragile ecosystems.
The Union minister's call for action comes on the heels of a study published in 'Journal of Glaciology' by Cambridge University Press which revealed a troubling trend at Himachal Pradesh's Gepang Gath glacier: rapid glacial retreat coupled with the dramatic expansion of its proglacial lake -- a water body that forms at the front or side of a glacier and is typically dammed by moraine, glacial ice, or debris.
Over the past six decades, this lake has grown nearly sixfold, from 0.2 km² in 1962 to 1.2 km² in 2023.
Led by scientists from the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research under the ministry of earth sciences, the study links this expansion directly to the glacier's retreat, further accelerated by calving (the breaking off of ice chunks from the glacier's terminus).
Between 2014 and 2023, Gepang Gath retreated 480m, resulting in substantial surface area loss and volume loss (21.7 million cubic metres of ice).
The glacier's mass balance—a critical measure of its health, reflecting the net gain or loss of ice—has shown a consistently negative trend, indicating it is losing more mass than it gains.
The study highlights a dangerous feedback loop: as the lake grows, its relatively warmer water accelerates melting at the glacier's edge, triggering further calving. This retreat creates more room for the lake to expand, reinforcing the cycle and turning a once-stable glacier into a rapidly vanishing ice mass.
The consequences extend well beyond Gepang Gath. Chandra River, fed by meltwater from this glacier and over 210 others in the basin, supports agriculture and hydropower downstream. Continued ice loss could strain water availability, while the expanding proglacial lake raises the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs)—sudden, destructive floods caused by the abrupt release of water from glacier-fed lakes.
GLOFs was, again, something Yadv spoke about at length in Kathmandu.
To prevent such disasters, the study calls for urgent measures, including the establishment of early warning systems for the proglacial lake and enhanced monitoring of glacier-lake dynamics.
These recommendations align with Yadav's five-point global action plan to tackle shared ecological challenges in mountainous regions. One key measure he outlined was building climate resilience through investments in adaptation strategies, early warning systems for hazards like GLOFs, and the development of climate-resilient infrastructure in high-altitude areas.
Gepang Gath is not an isolated case. Across the Himalayas, many lake-terminating glaciers are undergoing similar transformations. The study warns that unchecked glacier retreat and expanding proglacial lakes could severely impact water security in South Asia, where millions rely on glacier-fed rivers for drinking water, agriculture, and energy.
(With agency inputs)